Lyubov Loginova, the former Director General for Alsart has been appointed Chairman of its Board of Directors and will be spearheading major expansion plans.

Anurag Dikshit, one of the co-founding shareholders of online gaming company PartyGaming, has entered a guilty plea to charges brought against him in America under the Wire Act 1961, agreeing to pay a fine of $300 million in three installments. The Wire Act has not previously been applied to internet gambling actitivies beyond sports betting.

Aristocrat's latest release for XCite is 5 Koi, an oriental fish-themed Power Pay game. It features Chinese symbols, including the familiar Lucky Coin as scatter, the luscious Golden Carp as substitute, and the four Chinese Lucky Wish symbols: Prosperous; Good Luck; Wealth; and Lucky.

The Las Vegas Treasure Island casino and hotel is being sold by MGM Mirage to Phil Ruffin's company, Ruffin Acquisition, for $775 million. Ruffin realised $1.4 billion from the sale of the New Frontier casino in 2007.

Playing card manufacturer Copag has been chosen by online poker specialists PokerStars to produce decks of cards branded with Latin America Poker Tour and EPT - European Poker Tour.

Bally won the American Gaming Association's (AGA) Gaming Voice ‘Best Customer Publication' award for its Networked Floor of the Future customer publication. The award was presented to Bally's Director of Systems Marketing, April Augustine, by AGA President and Chief Executive Officer Frank J. Fahrenkopf, Jr. at a special awards luncheon during G2E in November.

Gaming revenues in Macau showed a 3 percent upturn in November, year-on-year. This is far short of the 49 percent growth enjoyed, year-on-year, between November 2006 and November 2007, but arrests a twomonth decline and is seen by analysts as indicative of continued strong demand for gaming in China.

Gaming Laboratories International (GLI) claims that its new testing and interoperability center in Macau is the first in the region.

Clarion Gaming and Beacon Events, organisers of the 7th annual Asian i-Gaming Congress & Expo (AiG) which takes place at the Venetian in Macau 24- 26 February this year, believe that it is set to be the largest gaming congress in the region.

Try it for yourself is the message MEI is sending to operators about bill validators. The company, which makes Cashflow SC, is keen for operators to run Value-added Trials (VATs) and see for themselves, first-hand, how Cashflow stacks up against other bill validators on key performance measurements, such as "cash in the box", acceptance rate, jam performance and ease of use.

Gaming revenues in Las Vegas fell by a quarter during October this year, the tenth consecutive monthly fall, giving rise to a cumulative decline of 8.3 percent over twelve months for the state of Nevada, according to figures released by the Gaming Control Board. Casinos in Nevada won under $905 million, the lowest one-month total since April 2005.

National Lampoon and Poker Face have joined forces to add gaming facilities to one of the busiest online humour networks, through NationalLampoonCasino.com.

Jurate Bitinaite has joined Bally as regional sales manager for Eastern Europe.

Gary Platt Manufacturing has promoted Mike Yabroff to the position of Regional Sales Manager. Mike is a recent graduate of the University of Nevada who has been with Gary Platt Manufacturing since 1997, working all aspects of the company from inside sales to production. Mike will be serving Colorado, Montana and Northern Nevada.

Microsoft, which claims to be one of the largest employers in the state of Nevada, has opened an office in Las Vegas. The company has around a dozen full-time employees permanently based in Las Vegas and another 10 on average who routinely travel to the market to service local customers and partners on a daily basis.

GameLogic has received $3.0 million of debt financing from Velocity Financial Group, Inc. GameLogic uses popular Internetbased game content to help casinos attract new players and interact with existing players while they are off property, wit the aim of materially increasing casino property visitation.

Anew cleaning card system makes cleaning TransAct's Epic 850 and 950 ticket printers quicker and cheaper, according to TransAct and cleaning card maker KICTeam.

The Rank Group has appointed Mark Jones as managing director of Blue Square, its interactive gaming business. He also becomes a member of the Group's executive committee.

Gauselmann recently re-opened a refurbished Merkur Casino, which is in Prague's Cerny Most shopping mall.

Seamus McGill is joining Aristocrat as Chief Operating Officer of Aristocrat Americas in February.

Cantor Gaming, an affiliate of the global financial services company Cantor Fitzgerald, has been approved by the State of Nevada Gaming Commission to begin operations with its mobile gaming system e-Deck, within approved gaming areas in the state of Nevada.

FutureLogic's TableXchange puts TITO technology on standard gaming tables so that players can move between slots and tables without having to visit the cash cage. "It brings TITO technology to table games and across the whole casino floor," says Nick Micalizzi, VP-Sales & Marketing for FutureLogic.

Display Solutions, UK partners of board developers Avalue, has launched a new gaming platform, the ACP-GM45, which delivers highquality graphics, including 3D, without the need for an independent graphics chip. It has been designed to provide a longterm, stable platform.

Medialive Casino claims it is about to change online poker for ever when it launches texas hold 'em poker with live dealers and live webcam that allows players to challenge each other in real time.

Microgaming's MySlot software allows players to create their own unique slot machine configurations, personalising a 5 reel, 9 pay-line slot game template by adding their own pictures to the reels, changing colours and adding music. "MySlot offers players a completely different gaming experience - allowing them to sit in the designer driving seat," says company CEO Roger Raatgever.

Slot and systems producer Bally Technologies has announced a raft of changes which will affect its European operations – find out more…

Digital security specialists Dallmeier take us through another installation, this time at Switzerland’s Casino St Moritz…

Ricki brings the latest news from the buzzing gaming hotspot of Latino America in his Engliah-language column…

Ricki Chavez-Munoz rbings the news from Latino America in his Spanish-language column...

Is Christmas Cheer for the Gambling Sector drowned out by Doom and Gloom – or are there any Fairy Godmothers out there anywhere? Former UK Shadow Gambling Minister Nick Hawkins sorts the wheat from the chaff in his bi-monthly column…

Times are hard – but it’s about time so-called ‘experts’ took the gaming industry seriously, says Sharon Harris

I’ll keep it short and sweet this issue… Happy new year – here’s to an absolutely  wonderful 2009 for everyone in the casino industry.

Jon Bruford
Managing Editor
jonbruford@yahoo.co.uk